Fifa president Sepp Blatter denies he wants to get rid of penalties on Twitter

Fifa president Sepp Blatter has taken to Twitter to deny reports that he labelled penalty shoot-outs ‘a tragedy’ and wants to get rid of them.

Sepp Blatter told his Twitter followers that he does not want to get rid of penalties after reports alleged he did (Pic: AFP/Getty Images)

He told the Fifa congress in Budapest that the Football Task Force should look at the practice of penalty shoot-outs, saying: ‘Football can be a tragedy when you go to penalty kicks.

‘Football should not go to one to one, when it goes to penalty kicks football loses its essence.’

However, after being slammed by fans of the beautiful game, Blatter was forced to take to Twitter to explain himself.

He tweeted: ‘Re shootouts: they are part of the Laws and I don’t want to do away with them’.

The football boss continued: ‘Re shootouts: what I would like is for the winner to be decided 11 v 11, not 1 v 1.’

Nevertheless, his reassurances did little to dampen the rage of football fans, who also took to Twitter to express their anger.

One wrote: ‘@SeppBlatter you’re a mug penalties should always be part of the game,’ while another simply went for ‘@SeppBlatter you do my head in’.

This comes after two major games were decided by penalty shoot-outs last season – Chelsea beating Bayern Munich in the Champions League, and the African Nations Cup when Zambia triumphed over Ivory Coast.